1. 1. Musicians Life
2. 2. House Style The colors that I have decided to use through my magazine are some very unique colors for this genre. I used a dark red for masthead in the table of contents. I also used the same dark red for the cover story dividers on the cover page. The only other colors that I used for the fonts were black and white. I used the white on the table of contents page because I thought that it tended to show up the best with the photos that were behind it. I used a plain black font on the front cover page in order to continue with the simplicity of the main cover and not to make the reader dizzy with many colors annoying them.
3. 3. Critical Reflection Questions #1 My product challenges the conventions of a magazine by ignoring the rule of thirds and keeping a majority of the cover lines towards the top of the magazine. By doing this, it will attract the readers attention because many magazines are stacked upon each other in a staircase fashion and this will allow for the reader to always see the featured articles in the magazine and be enticed to buy it in order to learn more. My magazine will be different from many magazines because they do not analyze and get a personal interview of how the life of that specific artist came to be. Many music magazines just talk about music but dont really talk about the person behind the music, this magazine will help fill that gap for this missing criteria.
4. 4. Masthead: I chose to place the masthead here, because it is the most logical and appropriate place according to the conventions of a magazine. The simplicity of this masthead will engage the reader to want to buy it and read it. Date: I decided to place the date here in a small simplistic way because it is discrete, but still noticeable and attractive. Cover Stories: I decided to place the cover stories at the top of the magazine and go against the rule of thirds because many magazines are displayed in a staircase form. I put it like this, so that in that way of layering the magazines at the store, the cover lines may be noticeable. Puff: I have placed this puff here to catch the readers eye in a simplistic way without being too obnoxious. This is a serious magazine and I would like the tone of simplicity and seriousness to continue throughout the magazine. Main Image: The cover image is a photo of the main story of the article. When taking this photo, I made sure to leave enough room at the top of the photo in order for the masthead to have enough space to be displayed. I dont agree with other magazines covering their masthead with the main cover photo. I think this takes away from the branding. A rival company billboard does this and I think this is what will make it stand apart from rival music magazine companies. Barcode: I placed the barcode in this position of the magazine because like most magazines it is at the bottom, but as for my magazine it is placed here because it is out of the way and not bothering the main image and isnt sticking out like a sore thumb to the readers. Dividers: I have placed these dividers here in order to create a division between the stories without any confusion. The simple use of these plain lines, helps reinforce the theme of simplicity throughout this magazine.
5. 5. Table of Contents I went against the rules of conventions here. (1) Instead of aligning the numbers in an organized fashion, I decided to space them out in a curvy way that would be appealing to the reader. Even though this way may not look organized, it still is containing the theme of simplicity by using a plain color such as black for the font and nothing wild. (2) Also for a change in order to contrast with the background, the masthead was changed in its color, that color was the same color as the red stripes from the guitar, I think this helps accent the guitar and also gives a great contrast to the picture and makes the masthead stand out a little more to the readers eye. 2 1
6. 6. Double Page Spread I think many elements from this piece will attract the reader, (1) such as the colorful picture contrasting with the dark collage of pictures. (2) I used two columns because I think 3 is too much and doesnt go with the theme of simplicity of the magazine. (3) I chose this picture for the cover of the story because it shows a very serious side of the band presented and (4) the white simplistic font adds to the tone of seriousness and helps the reader become more engaged with the intensity of the article. (5) By adding the pull quote to the article it attracts the readers attention to that one specific quote and helps put emphasis on that specific quote from the speaker and gives the reader a sense of familiarity and connection with the musician and makes the article more personal. 1 2 3 4 5
7. 7. Engaging the Audience My magazine will engage the audience by making each article very interesting with facts and stories about all the famous artists who have made it big in the music industry. Other music magazines such as billboard just give the charts and the popular music, but dont actually sit down and get the story behind the music with the artist. My magazine will tackle this issue and resolve this problem by interviews new and old artists each week about their personal life and music career of how they came to be in the music industry and the road it took to get there, these are all exciting things that viewers are looking for in a music magazine and would love to read about their favorite artists.
8. 8. Production My production skills have improved greatly throughout this project. I am now able to fully function the workings of Photoshop and know the conventions of a magazine. I have also tried to use InDesign but I did not enjoy it as much as I do Photoshop, to me it is much easier to use. With the easiness of use of this program, I can easily take a photo and make it so that it is magazine ready and will be attractive to the readers eye and will encourage them to read the magazine more and more. In the cover of the magazine I was able to improve the cover by sharpening the image a little and changing the masthead to a more sophisticated font. In the table of contents I kept rearranging the numbers and the articles because I couldnt which fit the best, but in the end I think it turned out for the best. I had to do several corrections on the cover story article because I kept finding things to fix and add, such as the title above the story and moving around the pull quote and shifting the paragraphs.
9. 9. Technology I integrated a lot of technology throughout this project such as Photoshop, edublogs, InDesign, research on the internet, and much more in order to complete this project. The use of technology is a probably the only way to make a magazine, without it, there wont be many magazines without computers and printers. I dont know how I would complete this project without technology, hence Media studies. My favorite tool in Photoshop would have to be the eye dropper tool because I like to take colors from the photo and then use it in my fonts.